podcasts pour tous les Acadiens

On Louisiana Eats! NOLA food icon Poppy Tooker takes us into Louisiana's wide open fields, deep waters, bustling markets, and busy kitchens. Poppy's people are carrying on the traditions of Louisiana's wholly local but universally celebrated food, from farm to table, and sometimes barroom! Poppy roams the State to find the folks whose inspiration and innovation are taking the abundant wealth of Louisiana's food culture into the future. Let's eat!

On this week’s show, we’re capturing portraits in sound of several superstar chefs in Louisiana and beyond.
We begin with Chef Rick Bayless of Chicago's Frontera Restaurants, who spent his childhood poring over Julia Child’s books and watching her on TV before launching his own successful career. Now, Rick’s the 2016 recipient of the Julia Child Award for his transformative Mexican cuisine.
Then, we bring it back home with Chef Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace. Through determination and dedication to... Read More »

The holiday season is upon us and we’re throwing the ultimate cocktail party.
No one knows how to entertain quite like like Julia Reed. In her book, But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria! she offers a number of stories from a lifetime of rollicking culinary escapades. Julia lets us in on some tips for hosting a cocktail party for the ages.
Then, we turn to the topic of wine with master sommelier... Read More »

On this week’s show, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving by saving a place at the table for several remarkable stories.
First, we spend a day riding along with the volunteers of the Trinity Loaves and Fishes food truck as they cater to the hungry and transient in New Orleans. All year long, volunteers at Trinity Episcopal Church prepare and deliver food throughout the Greater Metropolitan Area.
Then, we join students, parents, teachers, and neighbors gathered for Edible... Read More »

On this week's Louisiana Eats!, we join Chef John Besh in the Rouse’s Culinary Innovation Center, located at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, for a lesson in cooking up some oyster stew. We also talk about John's book, Besh Big Easy, which focuses on traditional dishes that he believes are disappearing from Louisiana dinner tables.
We'll also meet several talented chefs at the Blackpot Festival & Cookoff held annually in... Read More »

On this week's show, we speak with some powerful and influential women in the food industry who are getting the job done.
We begin with local treasure JoAnn Clevenger, restaurateur behind the Upperline. While she is most famous for her Uptown restaurant, JoAnn has worn many different hats over her lifetime, managing multiple businesses with pluck and determination.Then, Jill Pratt, the first ever female General Manager of Zatarain’s, tells us stories from behind the... Read More »

It’s Halloween and there’s no place better in the world to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve than in the the ghost laden state of Louisiana!
To get you in the spirit, on this week’s show, we tour the cities of the dead, learning tombside all about our dearly departed culinary legends from Sally Asher, author of Stories From the Saint Louis Cemetaries of New Orleans.
Then, we learn all about the business of... Read More »

On this week’s show, we’re taking a tour of the iconic restaurants that have made a transformative impact on American cuisine.
We begin with acclaimed Yale history professor Paul Freedman, who explores two centuries of historical and cultural changes in his book Ten Restaurants That Changed America. Paul's list weaves together culinary and social history, from the innovators of roadside dining to the vanguards of haute cuisine.
Next, we take a visit to Antoine’s, the essential New Orleans restaurant... Read More »

On this week's show, we're up at the crack at dawn to examine what many consider to be the most important meal of the day: breakfast.
First, we speak with John Currence, the James Beard Award-winning chef who has earned the title of "Big Bad Chef" at his revered restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast. John tells us tall tales from his breakfast joint in Oxford, Mississippi.
Next, we experience breakfast after midnight at the 24-hour Trolley Stop... Read More »

On this week's show, we're looking at farming across the state and the Americas.
We begin on the West Coast, with a tour of Gourmet Mushrooms in Sonoma County, California, where they are mimicking natural growing conditions to cultivate specialty mushrooms indoors. This farm harvests eight different varieties of organic mushrooms for food wholesalers, gourmet grocers, and restaurants all across America.
Then, we return to an urban farm in our own backyard. Three years... Read More »

Perhaps nothing tells the story of a kitchen better than the objects that live in it. On this week’s show, we’re bringing in a panel of experts for an education on culinary antiques and collectibles.
We begin with author and Antiques Roadshow appraiser Nick Dawes. Nick's expertise gives him a remarkable view into the lives of people and their ancestors through the relics that they bring to the show. His visit to the Historic New... Read More »

t's hard to believe that it has been a whole year since we moved our Louisiana Eats! studio into the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. On this week's show, we celebrate this one-year anniversary by meeting our neighbors in the Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard corridor in Central City.
Of course, our move wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for the museum's intrepid director, Liz Williams. Liz joins us to reflect back on a year... Read More »

On this week's show, we celebrate Commander's Palace and its visionary matriarch Ella Brennan, whose highly-anticipated memoir is coming out next week.
First, we speak with Ella’s daughter and co-author, Ti Adelaide Martin. Born into her family’s restaurant dynasty, Ti knows all too well her mother’s revered place both in the food industry and in New Orleans history. Aware of the fascination with her mother’s life story, Ti wrote down a number of stories... Read More »